Reading The Major Darkhorse Series

I've started reading & rereading the major Darkhorse SW series.

This is my reading list:

Tales of the Jedi
Jedi Vs. Sith
KOTOR (recent series, up to Vector)
The Clone Wars
Dark Empire Trilogy

I'm already reading 'Legacy' with great pleasure - may be the best SW comic I've ever read!

Golden Age of the Sith/Fall of the Sith Empire: Well, what can I say? I despise KJA and his writing here is true to form - complete crap. However, he does manage to move a few key concepts into place (Sith Holocrons, Ossus, Hyperspace War). His characters are awful, his battles pointless, and his depiction of early Jedi laughable. I'll give him this - the Jedi jellyfish in the crystal aquarium was cool - but instead of using the Force to battle its enemies, it uses the gasses in its tank for absolutely NO reason. The art has its good points, but the blue Jedi with the razor buck teeth was a hugely bad idea - how can you possibly generate any emotion for a character who looks like that? Well, it's out of the way - on to TotJ, which I remember fondly.

 

Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire are a chore to be sure. I did like The Sith War despite the lack of Veitch and loved Redemption.

Jedi VS. Sith=amazing
KotOR= more amazing
Clone Wars=Creme of the Crop!
Dark Empire Trilogy=an interesting chore. Somehow, I actually like Empire's End best. Don't know why...

 

"Chore" is a good word!

I agree about Veitch - it's not good news when his name is absent...

 

To each his own, but that design just doesn't work for me. It looks like the creature from 'Alien'. I'd have gone with something more fitting for a scholar & sympathetic character. You can't even get a facial expression out of that thing. Maybe some kind of horde of Sith creatures could look like that, or a background Jedi, but it didn't work for me as *that* character.

Oh, I also forgot: Arbies ... I mean ... Aarba the Hutt. Awful. It's hard to feel sorry for a character when it gets angry and vomits green slime all over the story's heroine. The scene where Aarba get's killed is...a relief. Why is there a KJA? Why? Oh, why??

 

Odan-Urr rules! As does Ood Bnar another ugly "oldie" but a goodie.

 

Yea Ive been enjoying Legacy so much that Ive also been tempted to pick up TPBs from previous series whenever Im in the bookstore.

 

Odan-Urr's design is just downright awkward. But at the same time it makes him lovable and endearing, so no complaints from me.

 

Yeah, I was agreeing about the Alien part, I get it.
I said "hard to sympathize" - I have no qualms about Jabba being a gross slob, it was just stupid to try and make a sympathetic character out of Arbies er Aarba, because it didn't work. I felt precisely zero when the stupid slug got 86'd.

 

Sure having every Hutt a vile gangster is strange, there would have to be a good one in there somewhere, there will always be a few good and bad eggs in every batch.

 

Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon Review

This is more like it. Tom Veitch knows how to write a SW story!

Befitting the inauguration of a new 'era' in the SW mythos, Veitch manages to get in all the most important SW themes:
Light/Dark Force
Mentor/Apprentice relationships
Coming of age
Friendship
Family ties
Technology and nature

Ulic and Cay are vibrant and compelling characters. Tott is an excellent sidekick. Arca is a near-perfect Jedi Master. All this is contained in a suitably swashbuckling adventure story. Veitch even manages to get a Princess and lots of big beasties into the mix!

The art isn't very consistent, and sometimes the inking is abysmal. But this is a comic that captures the spirit of SW, and which understands the underlying concepts. Outstanding.

 

Bumpa-bump-bump, up we go!

 

I always thought the art had a distinctly 1930-40s-ish style. It just reminded me of depictions of Krypton from the first Action issues.

 

Yes, I agree! I am a big fan of that era of illustration & I think the style was intentional in TotJ. However, the art isn't all on the same quality level, some panels have a sketchy unfinished quality, and there are many panels that are inked far too heavily, which was very trendy in early 90's comic books.

The Saga of Nomi Sunrider Review

Veitch does it again with this storyline!

Strong characters like Nomi, Master Thon (coolest Jedi Master ever?), and the menacing Bogga the Hutt. Weaving eastern philosophy & fable, European fairy tales, space opera and westerns into a gripping story - this is the very DNA of SW. This story arc has a distinct late 60's / early 70's vibe - recalling the works of Carlos Castenada, the original Dune trilogy, 'Heavy Metal' magazine, the early films of Alejandro Jodorowsky as well as other sci-fi movies of the period, like the Tarkovsky 'Solaris' and Boorman's 'Zardoz'. Heady, trippy stuff with deep roots in philosophy, eastern and western. And again - the sweeping, romantic spirit of adventure that makes SW special.

I'm very glad to be revisiting this series. The Veitch entries are first rate!